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Friday, 22 December 2017

JUMP INTO A DUSTBIN AND DANCE

After another year blighted by terrorism and ideology – OK, name
a year when that wasn’t the case – Christmas becomes a time for remembering the
lights in our world, those things for which we give thanks, for which the world
becomes that bit better or, in the very least, a little more bearable.

This was demonstrated by my finding a radio show, recently
played out on BBC Radio 4 Extra, titled “The Naughty Navy Show,” from 1965,
starring Spike Milligan, with John Bird and Barry Humphries, in a story not
unlike those found in “The Goon Show,” but without the orchestra and sound
effects. The difference here was how the show was recorded in front of a group
of students at Greenwich Royal Naval College, on Christmas Day. While not the
best show Milligan ever did, it is nice to hear everyone giving up their time on
Christmas Day to perform a professional show. Similar shows were done for Army
and Royal Mail workers, but at other times of year.

For me, Spike Milligan is the father of modern comedy.
Milligan begat “The Goon Show,” which inspired “I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again,”
which inspired “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” which inspired a number of
comedy specials on Canadian, which led its producer, Lorne Michaels, to create “Saturday
Night Live,” which produced or inspired every American comedy film, so-called
or actually funny, ever since. Milligan is also the father of subversive comedy
– “The Goon Show” featured impressions and parodies of the Prime Minister, then
Winston Churchill, at a time when that was just not done, and numerous satires
of British institutions, both military and civilian, filled the show every
week. The sheer effort to write twenty-six half hours per week cost Milligan
his sanity at times, making him one of the first to talk openly about
depression, for which the national conversation is still playing catch-up.

Just as I had been introduced to “The Goon Show” by my father,
I was introduced to Spike Milligan through his poetry, particularly “In the
Ning Nang Nong,” by one of my primary school teachers, Mrs Mason. We would
learn double, or joined-up, writing by copying out Milligan’s poems: “Pussy-cat
/ What are vices? / Catching rats / And eating mices!” That practice has given
way to something faster and clearer for me to write, but my expectations for
poetry to be both symbolic and economic were set by copying up some of the best
examples until it stayed in your head: “There are holes in the sky / Where the
rain gets in / But they’re ever so small / That’s why the rain is thin.”

Milligan also has a sense of bravery in light of those who defend
their nationality as part of their identity, for he was willing to lose his own
when it became indefensible - as a British Indian, born in Ahmednagar, he
refused to take the Oath of Allegiance necessary for him to get a British
passport, and was rendered stateless, until he gained an Irish passport – even marrying
a British woman later, and a subsequent letter writing campaign to the Foreign
Office, made no difference.

I have written previously about Milligan’s post-apocalyptic
play and film “The Bed-Sitting Room” [link], and I know I am likely to return to the man and his work again, for how it has helped
shape my view of the world since childhood, and I will continue to be thankful
for knowing how much of a difference his work will continue to make.